


The Little Vulcan

by afteriwake



Series: The Little Vulcan [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Amused Kirk, De-Aged Spock, Epic Friendship, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Inspired by Fanart, Male Friendship, POV Kirk, Poor Spock, Spock is Not Amused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 22:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6538834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanks to something that no one can quite figure out, Spock and the other Vulcans on board the Enterprise have been de-aged to toddlers. Spock, however, is the only one to retain his adult intelligence, and Kirk does his best to convince him that they'll find out what happened and that they'll fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Vulcan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GreenSkyOverMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenSkyOverMe/gifts).



> So this is another fic written as part of the multiple commissions for **GreenSkyOverMe**! I'm writing this initially as a one-shot, but I could make this into either a series or a multiple part fic, if there's interest. This particular story, however, is inspired by [this piece of fanart](http://lostconner.tumblr.com/post/142555835232/its-time-to-go-to-bedlittle-man-vulcan) by **lostconner** on Tumblr that was suggested to me, that I immediately fell in love with (if you like their work and want to support them, it's available on Society6 [here](https://society6.com/lostconner)).

He had no idea how it had happened. They’d passed through some weird cluster of exploded stars, or at least that was what they had _thought_ they were, and one minute his First Officer had been his normal, annoying fully grown self…

...and the next there was this kind of adorable little toddler in the seat, continuing on in exactly what Spock had been saying, just...in a little kid voice, with the clothes all swamped around him, and the damn biggest eyes he’d ever seen.

Bones couldn’t explain it, but every Vulcan crew member on the Enterprise was like this. They’d reached out to Spock Prime and Sarek but they were as stumped as Bones was. They’d flown back through the mass of stars in reverse but that hadn’t made a difference, either. No one had any idea why there were now six toddler Vulcan running around the Enterprise, or what the hell they were going to do with them while they still had three years of this deep space mission left if it didn’t get reversed. The other five were _literal_ toddlers, of average intelligence for their age, according to Bones, but Spock seemed to be different than them. Had to be the fact he was half human. Kirk had thought it would have made him be...he didn’t know, _dumber_ , maybe? He had thought maybe being half human would mean he would be half typical _human_ toddler, barely able to string a damn sentence together, but he had somehow managed to keep all of his adult intelligence. 

All Kirk knew, though, was this was going to be a royal headache and a half.

Nyota had said she was damn sure Spock was going to keep staying with her. He’d kind of assumed that much, to be honest, even though Bones wanted to quarantine the whole lot of Vulcans on the ship; he had the feeling the two of them were going to come to blows over it so he’d just put his foot down and said Nyota could say in the med bay for the time being as kind of a nanny. She’d glared but agreed, and she was getting her things to stay there while he was keeping the little ones occupied. Even now, it seemed, Spock was separate from the rest. He never really socialized with the rest of the crew, and most certainly not with the others from his home world; he knew they still did sort of blame him for the destruction of Vulcan. They may not remember it in this state, but deep down, maybe they knew.

He sat down on the floor near Spock. “It’s time to go to bed, little man,” he said, kind of amused by the situation of Spock reading everything he would normally have read to be ready for the next day’s duties. For right now Carol was taking over his duties; she would be reading the same list, going over the same notes, so that Bones and his medical crew could keep an eye on him.

“Vulcans do not need to sleep nearly as long as humans do,” he said, almost instinctively moving into Kirk’s lap.

Kirk raised an eyebrow at that. He wondered if it was an instinctual thing, if he had done it with his mother when he was this age before. He doubted Vulcans usually did that, but with a human mother, perhaps Spock had. He looked down and almost started to move him off of his lap, but then, in the end, plucked the device Spock was holding out of his hands and set it aside. “You’ve had the whole day to read that,” he said. “And for all you know, you’ll tucker out easily.”

“I only slept six hours as a child,” Spock said, sulking slightly. “I doubt I will sleep more than those six hours in this state.”

“Well, six hours is six hours,” Kirk said. “More than I get some nights.”

Spock was silent for a moment. “Will you leave the light on?” he asked uncertainly.

A small smile etched at the corner of Kirk’s mouth. Spock had been afraid of the dark. Part of him felt he should tuck that little tidbit of information away for future knowledge, but Spock had beat the shit out of him once and he didn’t need to go through that again. He wouldn’t tease him about it. He nodded a few times. “Yeah, I’ll make sure there’s a light on for you. You sure it’s not going to keep Uhura awake?”

“She is used to a small light being on,” he said.

“We’ll have a small light brought in, and if anyone gives you crap, I’ll find something really unpleasant for them to have to do.” He was quiet for a moment. “We’ll figure this out and get you back to normal before we leave this quadrant, Spock. Promise.”

“And if we do not?” he asked.

“We will,” Kirk insisted. “I don’t care what we have to do. We’ll figure out a solution.” He leaned over and picked up the device. “I’ll make sure this is nearby in case you wake up in the middle of the night, okay? But you have to promise you actually get some sleep. You can’t be a cranky little Vulcan in the morning.”

“Captain...” Spock said.

“Cranky half-Vulcan, then,” Kirk said, cracking a smile.

Spock glared up at his captain. “I am not amused, Captain.”

“Be happy I’m not taking pictures,” he said, his grin growing wider. “Trust me, this is a Polaroid moment.”

“Captain?”

“Old expression,” Kirk said, waving his hand. “Look, we’ll fix you right up, get you back to normal. We’ll figure it out. Meantime, Carol will make sure everything runs smoothly in the science department, Sulu will take over the First Officer duties, and Bones will make sure none of you guys die. Okay?”

Spock looked up at him and nodded. “I suppose I can live with that.”

“You have to. Captain’s orders.” He moved his hands to Spock’s sides and lifted him off his lap as Uhura came in. “Now. Sleep, and do whatever your nanny and your doctor tell you.” He smirked at the scowl on Uhura’s face as he stood up. “I’ll see you two in the morning. Night.”

“Good night, Captain,” Spock said, and Uhura nodded as he made his way past her. He made his way out of the medbay and then the small sense of joviality and ease he had dropped. It was easy to put on an act to make his friend feel better, though he wasn’t sure it had worked. He was never sure it worked with Spock, but he tried anyway. He strode off towards the lifts to make his way to the bridge. Now was the time to get to work and try and figure out a way to fix the mess, and quickly.


End file.
